All-German clash of the Northern Stars

Like in 2012 definitely one German team will make it to the VELUX EHF Champions League, as two Bundesliga squads face each other in the all-German semi-final. One year ago THW Kiel beat Füchse Berlin highly close to reach the final of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 and raise the trophy at the end. This year their Northern German arch rivals from Hamburg is the challenger of the newly crowned German champion (record champion with 18 titles).

VELUX EHF FINAL4, semi-final 2:
THW Kiel vs. HSV Hamburg
The match will be thrown off at 18:00 hrs. local times and will be streamed live with English commentary on ehfTV.com.

HSV play their fourth EHF Champions League semi-final – and for the first time their opponent is not Ciudad Real, like in 2008, 2009 and 2011, when the German club failed.

THW Kiel are semi-finalists for the ninth time in their club history – and except the 2010/11 season (when they were eliminated by FC Barcelona) they made it to every Champions League semi since 2007. And they finished a curse by reaching Cologne: Kiel are the first ever defending champions to make it to the LANXESS arena. After they have won the triple (Champions League, German championship and German Cup) in 2012 they can become the first ever German team to become “double triple winners”, as THW already defended their domestic titles.

In international competitions they locked horns only once, in the semi-final of the EHF Champions Trophy in 2007, when Kiel won 31:30. In that year Kiel lifted their first ever Champions League title, while HSV arrived as the Cup Winners’ Cup winner – their currently one and only international trophy.

Kiel are part of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 for the third time – and they want to continue their story of success: When they were on court in the LANXESS arena, they finally won the trophy. HSV was at Cologne in 2011, when they finished on third rank.

As it is the first All-German Champions League match for Kiel in the current season, Hamburg already have their fifth encounter against another Bundesliga team after four duels with SG Flensburg (twice in the Group Phase and twice in the quarter-finals). Hamburg was winner of their group, as Kiel finished second below MKB Veszprem, but then took revenge by two close victories against the Hungarians in the quarter-finals.

In the current Bundesliga season Kiel won both encounters – but really close, in contrast, the overall statistics is quite clear with 21 THW victories, four draws and six HSV wins.

“But we don’t look upon this statistic, we take confidence from those two close defeats in this Bundesliga season. In 60 minutes everything is possible. We have respect for Kiel, but we have it all in our hands,” HSV coach Martin Schwalb is confident.

On both sides some top players will have their last international matches for their clubs: Thierry Omeyer (Montpellier), Momir Ilić (Veszprem), Daniel Narcisse (Paris) and team captain Marcus Ahlm (end of career) leave the Kiel squad, Michael Kraus (Göppingen), Igor Vori (Paris) and Marcin Lijewski (Poland) leave Hamburg.

And goalkeeper Omeyer wants to come into the spotlight: He can become Champions League winner for the fifth time after his titles with Montpellier (2004) and Kiel (2007, 2010 and 2012). Still three more players from the 2007 winners’ team are in the current squad: Christian Zeitz, Marcus Ahlm and Dominik Klein. In contrast, none of the HSV players have ever raised the Champions League trophy.

“This is the only big title I never won in handball – and I hope to get it now,” Croatian HSV line player Igor Vori said, who was world and Olympic champion.

“We are here to win”, is the motto of Kiel. “We want to rise this trophy again, this is our clear aim since the start of the season,” said Filip Jícha, the only player of the “ultimate selection of 20 years EHF Champions League”, who is on the court in Cologne.